


On Comfort

by Noteventhat (Facialteeth)



Category: The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Coughing, Domestic Fluff, Gen, M/M, Mild Blood, Reading Aloud, Sick Jem Carstairs, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29942109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Facialteeth/pseuds/Noteventhat
Summary: Jem wakes up to the familiar sight of Will asleep in the chair next to his bed, bent over a book. Together, they have a quiet morning in.
Relationships: Jem Carstairs & Will Herondale, Jem Carstairs/Will Herondale
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	On Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> I was in the mood for some soft heronstairs. You can read this as platonic if you want because nothing is explicit but I certainly don't.

James woke up with the familiar feeling of his throat seizing in the uncomfortable sensation that always came before a cough. His eyes fluttered open instantly, finding the soft morning light before anything else. He slept all night without waking up then- something that happened very rarely. Even when he was exhausted, he was normally awake nearly every hour, twisting uncomfortably, fevered and pained. He moved to grab the glass of water off the table and he chased the feeling in his throat away as he swallowed.

The next thing he became aware of was Will. Will was asleep in the chair next to his bed, folded onto the side of the mattress with his head pillowed under his arm and a book that was now crumpled against his face held loosely in one of his palms. It looked like one of James’ own but it was Shakespeare and he knew that he had another copy around somewhere, so he wasn’t upset at the damage Will’s cheek had done on the pages as he slept. Besides, he couldn’t be upset with Will when he looked like that - curled up like a child with his dark hair shielding his face from the morning light.

It wasn’t a sight that was unfamiliar to James. Most nights, Will fell asleep in the chair next to his bed. Sometimes, he had enough mind to actually crawl into James’ bed and turn the lights off but most mornings, James found him like this, asleep wherever he was last awake, clutching whatever he had been using to force himself to stay awake a little longer.

Will rarely let himself indulge in sleep on purpose. Sleep for him was a thing that came accidentally, when he’d been awake for so long that he simply could not keep his eyes open any longer.

Jem's eyes fluttered away from Will’s lax face as he felt a cough in the back of his throat yet again - a sign that his body was upset with him for holding off on poisoning it for so long - but he tried to stifle it with another sip of water that didn’t quite chase the feeling away as well as it had last time. The moment he coughed, he knew that the soft haired boy next to him would jolt awake. He knew he’d refuse to sleep again. He knew this moment, with Will’s soft snores echoing in the quiet room, would be gone.

Eventually, James couldn’t help but cough. He tried to quiet it with his hand but the moment he gave into it, he couldn’t help but lean over and cough harder, hard enough for his own blood to come across his hand, a startlingly bright color so early.

Will was awake in an instant, his hair messy enough to make Jem want to laugh, if he wasn’t so preoccupied with his diaphragm trying to push his lungs up his throat. Will moved in an instant, grabbing the box where James kept that fine white powder and pushing it into his hands in a second. James moved to open it but his coughing left him heaving too violently to even try.

Will grabbed it back before James could try to hand it over to him and he seemed to curse himself for thinking James could do it at all. James wanted to correct him. He wanted to thank him for letting him try before doing it for him, even if he couldn’t do it in the end but his coughing silenced any words he would have said. Will opened the box and shoved his fingers into it before moving to push them into James' mouth.

It tasted bitter and it stung on Jem's tongue but Will’s finger was tender in his mouth. It would be weird if anyone else did it. It would be weird if anyone else saw Will do it even but alone in James' room with no one to watch them, Jem found that he was surprisingly okay with it, as long as it was Will, only ever Will.

Will’s fingers were splattered with blood as he pulled them away but he hardly seemed to blink at that fact. He moved to grab James’ water, pouring some of the powder in it before stirring, making it dissipate until the liquid looked deceptively clear. With the glass safely in James’ hand, he finally wiped his own bloody fingers off before he sat back a little, the immediate crisis successfully averted.

Slowly, he reached out to the now crumbled copy of The Tempest, trying unsuccessfully to flatten the pages.

“You ruin so many books,” Jem managed to croak out at last.

Will looked up, quirking an eyebrow with a halfhearted smirk. There was a glimmer of the act Will so often put up showing through but instead of it being a hard impenetrable wall like Will appeared around every else, it was more of a playful expression before it dissipated again, leaving only Will with his rumbled hair and his cheeks still reddened with sleep.

“If they were more interesting, maybe I wouldn’t fall asleep on them,” Will murmured in response.

“If you didn’t stay up all night trying not to sleep, maybe you’d be able to pay attention to them more,” Jem murmured back.

Will folded the book and placed it on the nightstand, where it remained with the cover pointing almost straight up in the air, the first fifty or so pages so crushed that Jem would have to individually flatten them out if he ever wanted the book to look normal again. Will reached for Jem’s glass when he saw he was done, taking care to gently wipe the blood Jem’s lips had left on the rim off before he placed it down next to the book.

“You can keep that copy.”

“You already gave it to me,” Will was saying instantly. “I spilled coffee on the first page.”

Jem didn't remember that but he also didn't doubt it. For as much as Will loved reading, you’d think he’d take more care of his books but he didn't. He gets so wrapped in each page that everything around him fades away, the lure of the words only disappearing when he managed to rip a page or spill something across them.

It made Jem cringe as he looked at his own books with their spines not even cracked. Even from the bed, Jem could pick out which books on his shelves Will had gotten his hands on and which he had spared.

“Tired?” Will asked softly.

Normally, the answer would be yes but this morning, James felt surprisingly refreshed. He shook his head no and Will seemed to ponder that for a moment. The morning seemed too calm to get up and get dressed to face the day and Will, on the same page as Jem as he often was, seemed to think the same thing.

After a moment, Will reached over to grab his crumbled book before he climbed over Jem on the bed, nearly elbowing him twice as he struggled to place himself next to James, which he finally succeeded in doing after a bit of a dramatic struggle. Finally settled on the bed, Will stretched out against Jem's side before flipping the book in his hands to the first incredibly crumpled page.

Without any other prompting, Will started reading out loud, “Scene one. On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard-” Will read. As he reached the dialogue, Will’s voice shifted, taking on the inflection he’d clearly imagined for each character.

James stifled his laughter, trying not to interrupt but Will clearly heard him and as he kept reading, a small smile broke on his face. “It’s not funny,” He chided, finally breaking character. “This is a very serious reading of one of my favorite books.”

“Oh yes, I apologize.” Jem murmured. He leaned against Will’s arm, his cheek pressed against his parabatai’s skin as he read over his shoulder. “Please, continue.”

Will gestured with the book vaguely, “Can I?” He asked, his incredulous expression making James laugh into his arm.

“Of course, keep going,” Jem said when his laughter finally died down.

Will stared at him for another long moment, waiting to see if he was actually done laughing at his very serious reading before he slowly turned back to the book, launching into the dialogue with a dedication that had Jem instantly stifling his laughter once again.

It was nearly an hour later that James found himself dozing off against Will’s arm but Will kept reading, his voice suddenly quieter, until his words were barely a hush in the air, lulling James to sleep even more.

When he woke again, the book was pressed into Will’s chest, even more crumpled than before but James found it hard to complain when Will looked so tranquil and relaxed. This time, with his throat no longer feeling as if it was going to choke him, Jem relaxed against Will’s arm and enjoyed the soft sound of his gentle snoring in the room, relaxing into the comfortable feeling radiating between their bond - a feeling that only ever seemed to come about when they were curled together like this, alone.

James could think of no better way to spend his morning and for a moment, he closed his eyes, intent on enjoying it until the rest of the world inevitably came to break through the bubble they’d made around each other.


End file.
